(Molly Bruns, Headline USA) New York police officers confiscated an unlicensed firearm from the home of Manhattan socialite and serial rape accuser E. Jean Carroll after her testimony in a lawsuit against former President Donald Trump, NBC News reported.
Carroll admitted to having a “high standard revolver, nine chambers” on the second day of the civil trial.
“I still do not have a license,” she said.
Reporting officer John Rader offered to take the gun and keep it at her local police station until Carroll obtained the proper license.
A member of Carroll’s security team passed off the gun to Rader.
Neither Carroll’s team nor Rader responded to NBC News’s requests for comments.
According to New York state law, possession of an unregistered firearm can result in charges of felony criminal possession, a sentence that comes with a maximum of four years of prison time.
Presiding Judge Lewis Kaplan refused to let Trump attorney Alina Habba question Carroll about the firearm.
He also rejected arguments by Trump’s attorneys to declare a mistrial, as Carroll tampered with evidence by deleting threatening text messages—some containing death threats.
The revolver became a topic of interest in Trump’s countersuit against Carroll’s defamation lawsuit against him, which claimed Trump had defamed Carroll by denying her highly dubious accusations of a sexual assault three decades ago in a department store dressing room.
Trump’s lawyers alleged Carroll defamed him after a civil trial ruled he was not liable for the rape claims—which requires a much higher evidentiary standard than sexual assault.
“Due to [Carroll]’s repeated falsehoods and defamatory statements made against [Trump], [Trump] has been the subject of significant harm to his reputation, which, in turn, has yielded an inordinate amount of damages sustained as a result,” the filing said.
In Carroll’s initial defamation trial, a jury ordered Trump to pay Carroll $83.3 million in damages for repeated defamation.
The jury said $11 million paid for damage to Carroll’s reputation, $7.3 million covered her emotional harm and the additional $65 million covered punitive damages.
